ALKHOBAR, 31 May 2004 — “They opened the door and came inside our house and asked my seven-year-old son, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ When he told them ‘Yes,’ they left. Forty-five minutes later I came downstairs and saw blood on the floor. It was only then that I began to be worried that something terrible was happening at our compound.”
So begins the harrowing story of Umm Hashim, an American of Iraqi origin. On Saturday, she and her family were forced to hide from terrorists in the Oasis housing complex for 12 hours until the security forces were able to mount a rescue operation.
Umm Hashim, her husband, son and daughter are among the residents of the Oasis Compound who have been given shelter at the Al-Gosaibi Hotel until they can decide whether to remain in Saudi Arabia or leave.
“Around 30 of our rooms are occupied by former residents of the Oasis Compound,” said a spokesman for Al-Gosaibi Hotel management, requesting anonymity. “Guests from the Oasis Compound include Japanese, German, Lebanese and American nationals among others. They are very upset.”
Youngsters from families that had taken refuge at Al-Gosaibi were playing tag in the hotel lobby and racing about while Umm Hashim discussed Saturday’s terrible events.
“We live in the Oasis Compound just behind the Tower Building,” she said. “At 7:45 on Saturday my husband tried to leave the compound to go on a business trip to Riyadh. When he got to the compound gate the guards told him there were reports of gunfire in Alkhobar and advised him to return home, which he did. He quickly came back to our house and rushed upstairs, where I was sleeping. He didn’t want me to be alarmed because I am pregnant and he was worried about the effect it would have on the baby.”
It was while the couple was discussing the situation in Alkhobar that the terrorists came into the compound and began their spree of violence. Umm Hashim discovered later that the terrorists entered the Oasis Compound near a small gate by the Casa Mia Italian restaurant. Her house is one of the first they would have encountered.
“My son came upstairs to play and it was not until I heard our maid calling me from downstairs that I went to see what was wrong,” Umm Hashim said. “There was blood on the floor and the front door was open. In his haste my husband had not locked it earlier. I was trying to understand where the blood had come from when our house began to fill with smoke. I couldn’t make any sense of the situation so I just put on my abaya and we all rushed into the street, leaving the doors of our house open.”
A neighbor saw the family and frantically pulled them into her home. She told them that there were terrorists in the compound. Umm Hashim’s husband got in his car and drove to the nearest security gate to try and find out what was happening. It was there that he encountered the terrorists.
“Four armed men caught him and asked him for his ID,” Umm Hashim related. “They asked him if he is a Muslim. When they saw he was an American, he quickly told them that he is of Arab origin. The terrorists told him they weren’t interested in him: they were only looking to rid the compound of infidels. That was when the terrorists saw the Swedish chef of Casa Mia and they shot him in front of my husband. They told my husband to go home and hide.”
Umm Hashim said it seemed that the terrorists went door to door looking for Westerners. They broke down a door nearby but found a Muslim family within and left them alone. In another house they didn’t find anyone so they started a fire there. The European family was hiding in a closet. When they realized that their house was burning down, they ran across to Umm Hashim’s house whose doors were open and hid inside. This created confusion because the family began answering Umm Hashim’s telephone and it was thought for a while that terrorists had occupied the home.
“Locked in the house in the compound we began to think about what to do, and we decided to telephone for help.”
They were told that rescue would come in the afternoon and they waited. No one came. In later calls they were told that the house was in a sensitive location in front of the Tower Building where the terrorists were holed up with their hostages. No rescue attempt could be made until dark.
“You can’t imagine what it was like,” Umm Hashim said. “There were four families with children and maids all crammed into one upstairs room and everyone was frightened. The children were crying and we were trying to keep them quiet. We were there for 12 hours and I don’t know how we got through that time.”
At 9 p.m. it was finally over.
“It was really dark and we were desperate,” she said. “We heard noise outside and then the military was there and they were rushing us out of the house. We crammed into a dark blue armored personnel carrier. There were some other people in there too. I think they were French. We were packed inside. I sat on the floor shaking. The kids were screaming. There were too many people but we fit inside on top of each other and the vehicle got us out of there. They transferred us to ambulances and took us to the compound owner’s house.”
After that the family was moved to Al-Gosaibi Hotel. Now they are making preparations to leave to Bahrain and from there they will decide what to do.
“My husband has been working here for four years and it is very hard to leave,” Umm Hashim said. “We don’t know what will happen to Oasis Compound and our home and belongings there.”
Her new baby boy is due in September. Her two other children were playing nearby.
“We asked Hashim why he didn’t tell us about the terrorists when they came to the house and questioned him,” his mother said. “He told us that they were familiar to him so he wasn’t afraid. Every day on the way to school he sees too many police officers with guns. They don’t frighten him anymore. All we can hope is that because he was not scared then, that he will not be afraid now.”
